HOW DO YOU TRULY FEEL ABOUT APPLE?

Qasim Majid is a technology entrepreneur and the CEO and founder of Wow Zone – a digital marketing agency. He has been in the digital industry for 20 years.

With the recent update to Apple’s iOS, now on version 11, the question that’s on everyone lips is, have Apple lost consumer confidence. (My colleague Ammar wrote about this recently with some interesting research. You can read his article on our Wow Zone blog.)

Excited at the prospect of exploring all the new features, I swiftly began the task of downloading the new iOS. Immediately after the new install was complete, I was hit some new calendar appointment requests… yes wait for it, from as far back as 2012! After getting over the initial nostalgia of meetings long gone, my emotions turned to a gradual annoyance due to the slowness of the operating system when trying to navigate the address book. Which, I’m sure you will agree is one the most fundamental functions of what essentially is a phone, albeit on steroids!

If you’re like me, by 11am, after all the email replies, phone calls, social media responses have been answered, and general surfing, reading articles and news has been consumed my iPhone 6s’ battery life has been decimated to 11%. Therefore, it needs a good charge to get me through the second part of the day.

Thinking about it, before possessing an iPhone, I’ve not owned some many chargers for one phone located in so some many different places. One in the bedroom, one in the living room, one in the car, one at work, I also have a portal power pack just in case; the irony is it usually needs charging too. Back in the day, my nokia phone had one charger, and I charged it once which lasted at least 2 days, those were the days!

So, you’d think at the top of the ‘features to improve list’ from the ever so clever bods at Apple would be to improve battery life on the new iOS. Well you’d be wrong to assume that too. My battery life now has reduced even further. Ok, before all you hecklers say I need to update my phone, to iPhone 8 or the iPhone X, then my rebut to you is simple, my contract is not up for renewal until Feb and more importantly Apple themselves say that iOS 11 is for devices which are iPhone 6 onwards.

I also get the whole advancement of technology debate too, I’ve been in the industry for almost 20 years now, but this is not about progression of technology, that’s a given and it’s constant. This is about Apple losing confidence with their customers, because they are forcing the issue of updating to new devices, whilst charging silly money, on flaky technology.

Basically, they are messing with consumer elasticity when it comes to loyalty of the brand and its products. Now, an iPhone X costs more than a MacBook Air. How much is too much, before we say enough is enough, only time will tell, but I think we are reaching breaking point fast. Consumer sentiments and perceptions are extremely powerful, they make you or break you, the moment the energy becomes ‘away-from’ rather than ‘towards’ a brand it’s a downward spiral and very difficult to change.

Personally, like many, I’m all in with Apple, however, I now feel as though I’m being forced to stick with the brand and be dictated to, whilst effectively pulling my pants down at the same time for the privilege. That leaves a bitter taste in the mouth!

So, are Apple losing consumer confidence, that’s up to you to decide. Like a Jedi search your inner most feelings about how the brand makes you feel then make your own conclusion.

What I am certain about, is, like Apple did many years ago with the iPhone, the market is now ready again for disruption, someone will come along and change the industry and the cycle will start all over again.